They might be cute and cuddly, but Australia’s only giant pandas are in fact expensive – though nonverbal – Chinese diplomats. The fate of Wang Wang and Fu Ni, who have called Adelaide zoo home for the last 15 years, will be decided on Wednesday after a meeting between Australian politicians and China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi. The pandas arrived in Australia in 2009 after being relocated from China’s Wolong national nature reserve. It was the first time pandas had been held in Australia and the first time in the…
Tag: Zoos
San Diego Zoo Could Be First in U.S. to Get Pandas From China Again
Giant pandas from China could be arriving in the United States again soon, as Beijing is planning to continue its panda diplomacy with Western countries, according to a statement from the Chinese Embassy in the United States. The China Wildlife Conservation Association reached agreements with the San Diego Zoo in California and the Madrid Zoo in Spain “on a new round of international giant panda conservation cooperation,” according to the statement. The agreement would keep alive a more than five-decade old tradition of China lending pandas to American zoos in…
Where you can turn for quality TV news | Brief letters
Can I suggest that the former Newsnight presenter Peter Snow, who feels starved of the journalism that matters (Letters, 1 December), watches Channel 4 News? At 55 minutes, it has ample time for in-depth analysis, and the journalism is of the highest standard.Philip HoldsworthRhos-on-Sea, Conwy It must be a sign of my age that, as soon as Zoe Williams mentioned her previous husband’s choice of the name Thurston for their baby, I thought of Thurston Dart, the classical musician, not a pop star. (Worried about naming your baby? Don’t be, 5 December).Marie PatersonNuneaton,…
Why no concern at prisoners being paid just 50p an hour to work? | Brief letters
Reading another article about Chinese prisoners possibly making products for sale in the UK (Chinese prisoner’s ID card apparently found in lining of Regatta coat, 1 December), I wonder why there is no concern that British prisoners are forced to work for UK companies for about 50p an hour? This work provides no training for release and serves only to enrich private prison contractors.David AdamsDarlington, County Durham How appropriate that on the day you note that Katherine Rundell, the author of The Golden Mole, has won the Waterstones book award…
‘Rock star of an animal’: Edinburgh zoo’s pandas to return to China
As soon as she heard that Edinburgh’s pandas were about to be flown home, Sarah Greenwood knew she had to see them. “I love everything about pandas,” she said. “I absolutely couldn’t miss it.” Wrapped in a thick coat and hat to guard against the freezing temperatures and the first snow flurries of winter, Greenwood, an events manager, 52, travelled from Cambridge on Wednesday to watch Tian Tian and her partner, Yang Guang, grazing on bamboo, sleeping and exercising. She is not alone: the news that the only pandas in…
Britain Says Bye-Bye to Its Only Pandas as They’ll Soon Depart for China
Britain’s only two pandas will soon be returned to China, officials said, in a send-off that has dispirited fans of the playful, waddling bears and signals what appears to be the end, at least for now, of panda diplomacy. “Bamboo bon voyage,” the Edinburgh Zoo of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland said on its website, noting that there would be “a giant farewell” on Thursday for the bears, whose names are Yang Guang and Tian Tian. The pair of giant pandas will be prepared to return to China in…
Panda Diplomacy Might Not Be Dead Just Yet
The fur balls might be coming back to Washington and San Diego. Xi Jinping, China’s leader, said in a speech on Wednesday night that his nation’s best diplomats, giant pandas, might soon return to zoos in the United States that have recently sent bears back to their homeland. “We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” he told a gathering of mostly…
Two giant pandas begin return to China from Smithsonian’s National zoo
The two giant pandas at the Smithsonian’s National zoo officially began their return to China on Wednesday. The two panda bears, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, had been in the United States on loan from China for more than two decades as part of a research agreement set to expire early next month. Their cub, three-year-old Xiao Qi Ji, is also going. The giant pandas will be forklifted in a crate out of the zoo on Wednesday and then transported on a 19-hour flight to a panda reserve in Chengdu,…
Chinese Zoo: This Is a Real Sun Bear, Not a Costume
Sun, moon, grizzly, black, spectacled, sloth: Bears all over the world can stand, shuffle, totter and walk on two legs, though they usually prefer four. They do not — strictly speaking — talk. But a zoo in Hangzhou, China, decided that the best way to clear up a conspiracy theory about one of its bears was to release a statement in the bear’s voice. The confusion appeared to begin in late July, when a video surfaced on the Chinese social media site Weibo of a sun bear named Angela standing…
‘Human in a costume’ sun bear draws crowds to Chinese zoo
Visitors have flocked to a zoo in eastern China’s Zhejiang province after a video of one of its bears went viral with some suggesting she looked so human she could be a staff member in a bear suit. Attendance numbers at Hangzhou zoo have risen by 30% to about 20,000 a day, with some people travelling overnight, since a video of the Malayan sun bear, named Angela, became a trending topic on Chinese social media over the weekend, Zhejiang-based Chao News reported. “After seeing this bear standing up on the…